Zimbabwe’s foreign minister on Wednesday insisted that the southern African country is entitled to attend next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
The minister, Stan Mudenge, maintained that Zimbabwe was back as a full member of the 54-nation organisation, saying its 12-month suspension from the Commonwealth council had lapsed on March 19 despite an announcement by Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon on March 16 that it had been extended for a further nine months.
Mudenge told parliament that the troika — Australia, Nigeria and South Africa — which slapped the country with the year-long suspension had not renewed it.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth councils after presidential elections in March last year were declared neither free nor fair by many international monitors.
”Zimbabwe is now back as a full member and is therefore entitled to attend the (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) CHOGM in Abuja in December 2003,” Mudenge declared.
He said Zimbabwe’s suspension need not be reviewed because it was for a specified period and when that expired, the country automatically became a full member again.
”The suspension was finite. To continue with it required a fresh decision. Such a fresh decision was never made,” he said in a special statement to lawmakers, just two days after Nigeria’s president and this year’s host of the CHOGM, Olusegun Obasanjo, visited Zimbabwe for talks with President Robert Mugabe on the issue.
Mudenge said McKinnon’s statement on March 16 was ”based on falsehood and therefore without effect” because South Africa and Nigeria had rebutted his claims.
”Put blatantly the secretary general lied,” said Mudenge, accusing Australian Prime Minister John Howard and McKinnon of ”breathtaking arrogance” and of being ”consumed by racist emotionalism”.
”There are many who regard Mr Howard as a notorious international outlaw who was recently involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq, murdered innocent women and children and effected unauthorised regime change.
”In fact they believe that he should be told clearly and firmly that ‘regime change’ is not a Commonwealth policy or principle and that he must stand trial at the Rome International Criminal Court for his crimes,” said Mudenge.
Obasanjo, after talks with Mugabe on Monday, said he was still ”consulting” on whether to issue an invitation to Mugabe.
Howard, McKinnon and Britain do not want to see Mugabe at the summit while most black Commonwealth countries support Zimbabwe.
It is feared that continued disagreement over Zimbabwe could widen the rift between African Commonwealth members, led by Nigeria and South Africa, and the so-called ”white Commonwealth”. – Sapa-AFP